Killing for Life?

After Tiller Murder, Pro-Lifers Defend a Peaceful Movement

HARRISBURG, Pa. — In the wake of
abortionist George Tiller’s May 31 killing, some have tried to paint the
pro-life movement as extreme and violent.

Salon columnist Kate Harding called
on political leaders to denounce “the thuggish campaigns of harassment dressed
up as ‘peaceful protest.’”

Bonnie Erbe, writing for U.S.
News and World Report, titled her recent article “Tiller Murder Is
Terrorism, and All Pro-Life Extremists Are to Blame.”

“It is time for America’s pro-choice
majority to stop standing idly by as extreme so-called pro-life advocates
murder obstetrician-gynecologists who are providing women with the legal right
to terminate pregnancies,” she wrote. Though she clarified that she did not
refer to “mainstreamers who object to abortion due to religious beliefs, but
who refrain from using inflammatory speech,” she called for a legal ban on
“inflammatory rhetoric that incites the unbalanced to violence.”

Tiller, one of a handful of
late-term abortionists in the country, was gunned down in the lobby of his
Kansas Lutheran church. Scott Roeder, 51, reported to be a mentally ill,
unemployed anti-abortion activist from Kansas City, Mo., was charged with with
first-degree murder.

The U.S. Department of Justice launched
an investigation into the killing, specifically to determine whether Roeder had
help from other anti-abortion crusaders.

Tiller’s family announced June 9
that it would permanently close the clinic Tiller ran in Wichita, Kan.

In spite of the violent end to
Tiller’s life, the pro-life movement has been one of prayerful, peaceful
protest for more than 30 years.

Organizations
such as New York’s Helpers of God’s Precious Infants and St. Paul, Minn.’s
ProLife Action Ministries have been peacefully praying outside of abortion
businesses and counseling women on the sidewalk for decades without any
violence on the part of the protesters.

Over the past two years, 40 Days for
Life has conducted 245 campaigns in all 50 states, four Canadian provinces and
seven countries.

“With
more than 175,000 people participating in 117,600 hours of peaceful activism,
we have never had any violence,” said Shawn Carney, campaign director for the
College Station, Texas-based organization. “Everything is rooted in prayer and
fasting. We have everyone who participates sign a statement of peace. Everyone
signs in, and we keep a log.”

Msgr. Philip Reilly has been active
in pro-life work for 42 years, 20 of those with the Helpers of God’s Precious
Infants, which he founded. The ministry prays at more than 20 different
abortion businesses in the U.S. alone. Msgr. Reilly prayerfully protests
outside of abortion businesses several times each week. Over the past two
decades, he said he’s never witnessed violence by the abortion protesters.

“We’re there to convert people to
the truth,” said Msgr. Reilly. “The only way to do that is to be Christ-like.”
The real violence, he said, is what’s taking place inside the abortion
business: “Children are being torn apart.”

Media Bias

The perception that pro-life
activists are engaged in violence is one that those in the movement say is fed
by the secular media.

Brian Gibson, director of ProLife
Action Ministries, noted the bias in the media’s recent usage of the term
“pro-life” to describe Tiller’s murderer.

“In regular news stories, they
always use the term ‘anti-abortion’,” said Gibson. “Now they start calling the
person who did this ‘pro-life,’ when he’s not. They’re rubbing our noses in the
term.”

The Associated Press Stylebook, used
by journalists for word usage, tells news organizations and reporters to
refrain from using the term “pro-life” in any circumstance.

“Use anti-abortion instead of
pro-life and abortion rights instead of pro-abortion or pro-choice,” says the
Stylebook.

Carney finds the bias frustrating.
“They see pro-life as only abortion,” he said. “They don’t look at adoption,
pregnancy counseling, and all the other things that pro-life activists do.”

“Violence tends to be a distraction
against the reality of abortion,” said Carney. “It allows the focus to be taken
off of the real victims.”

Violence Against Pro-Lifers

Ed Snell, of Harrisburg, Pa., knows a
thing or two about the violence typically found at abortion businesses —
violence directed not at abortion advocates, but at those opposing abortion. On
Dec. 22, 2007, Snell, then 69 years old, was atop his car, attempting to
sidewalk counsel over an 8-foot-high fence next to the Hillcrest Women’s
Medical Center.

One young couple walked up, and
Snell attempted to share information with them about the link between abortion
and breast cancer.

“The
young man became enraged,” said John McTernan, who witnessed what happened. “He
leaped over the fence, landed on top of Ed’s car and violently pushed Ed off
the car. Ed went headfirst off the car.”

Snell was knocked unconscious,
sustained cracked vertebrae, broken ribs and collarbone, a cracked skull and
bleeding on the brain. He spent the next two days in the hospital, a month at
home in bed, and a year of doctor visits.

“When he hit the top of the car, he
caught me under my jaw,” said Snell. “I landed eight feet from the car.”

Snell’s been active in the pro-life
movement for 20 years.

“I’m used to intimidation,” said
Snell. “If you breathe hard on someone or bump someone with your elbow, you’re
going to jail. This was the most violent thing that’s ever happened to me.”

Undeterred, Snell continues to show
up at the abortion business three days a week. Now, he speaks to clients
through a crack in the fence.

“I won’t go up on top of my car
again,” said Snell. “That was too traumatic for my family.”

Representatives from the various
pro-life organizations told the Register that they have commonly encountered
violence by those who support abortion.

“Cars have swerved to intimidate
us,” said Carney. “People scream and yell obscenities.”

“On numerous occasions, abortion
workers have threatened to assault us and run us over,” said McTernan.

Gibson agreed, saying that he’s been
personally assaulted by Planned Parenthood workers who have pushed and shoved
him, as well as been arrested on false charges.

In December, while trying to counsel
a couple, Gibson was shoved by the male and later arrested. The case was later
dropped.

“We’ve always been nonviolent in
word and deed,” said Gibson. “I’ve never touched anyone, and I won’t. The
thousands of hours we’ve been in front of abortion businesses — there has never
been an instance of violence on our part. In the history of our organization,
2,500 babies have been saved.”

“The murder of abortionist George
Tiller cannot be condoned,” said Jack Cashill, producer of the new documentary Thine
Eyes: A Witness to the March for Life. “But neither can sweeping accusations of
terrorism against the pro-life movement. Any thinking person will reject the
notion that the pro-life movement is now a ‘terrorist’ organization as a result
of one unaffiliated man’s crime.”

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